TREAT YOUR LENORMAND DECK LIKE A FRIEND - REALLY!
Reading Lenormand’s cards, Tarot cards, runes, palms, crystal balls, astrology charts, and just about any form of divination, are almost always associated with straight-up prediction, a.k.a. fortune -telling.
But in truth, divination is just as good for guidance as it is for prediction.
That’s why it’s helpful to think of your Lenormand deck or any other tool you use as your friend - really.
Your friends give you objective viewpoints as well as their opinions. They give you advice, which you don’t always follow. And at times, they’ll joke with you, be sarcastic, or tease you.
Lenormand’s deck is particularly amenable to this range of human dynamics because its cards behave like words in a sentence, just like language.
Volumes can be written about this amazing quality of Lenormand’s cards (see the Master Guides), but a key takeaway here is that your Lenormand deck can guide you - not just tell you what’s going to happen on x date.
And if you read for others, being aware of your style helps you become more aware of how you’re interpreting the cards.
So, how can you turn your Lenormand deck into a real friend? Here are some interesting reading patterns that help you manage this special relationship with your Lenormand deck.
HONEST QUESTIONS BEGET CLEAR ANSWERS
The key is in the asking. Always.
Questions are a powerful thing. Why? Because they are the lock. As you soon as you have the key, you can unleash what’s behind that door.
Why do you ask the questions you ask? What exactly is your motive? The clearer your intentions are, the clearer your answers will be.
In a Lenormand reading, the clearer you are about why you’re using the cards to answer this questions, the crisper your reading - and your interpretation of it - will be
This is an interesting psychological phenomenon: The clearer you are in your mind about what you’re looking for in a reading, the better your interpretation skills will be. It’s a riddle, isn’t it? Whether your interpretation ability is ignited by clarity or by the specifics of the question. Like most of these riddles, it’s probably both.
Being clear about a question doesn't only involve stating it in clear words and writing it down. But it also has to do with your conviction behind asking it.
This isn’t the same as being attached to outcomes, and I realize this can be a little tricky. It’s more about having considered different ways to answer the question and coming to the conclusion that your cards can contribute here.
In other words, this is a question worth asking and answering, not only with your cards, but by thinking, strategizing, and going within. The fact that you feel it’s an important question will help you formulate it intelligently and put in an honest effort when interpreting the cards.
Just like your friends will be genuinely supportive when you’re truly concerned about something, so will your cards respond to you with clarity when you truly want an answer.
HALF-HEARTED INTENTIONS PRODUCE MUTE READINGS
The opposite of taking a question seriously, is asking frivolously or in a half-hearted manner.
This often produces mute readings.
I talked about mute readings a little in the previous post. Mute readings are those Lenormand readings that don’t have a clear answer - or appear not to.
The cards are all over the place, there aren’t any standout combinations, it’s not clear what theme anchors the reading, it can be interpreted in many different, and the answer can go in several directions.
Now mute readings can happen at any time, even when we have the best of intentions, but they happen more frequently when we’re not serious about the question.
You might have noticed this in your own practice.
(If you’re not noticing patterns in your readings yet, it’s a good idea to start a reading journal. Download this template to get started).
So avoid doing readings when you don’t genuinely care about the question or when you know that doing a reading for it won’t add much value.
Just like you wouldn’t trouble your friends and family with issues you can easily resolve or aren’t a big deal, don’t trouble your deck with a question you’re not genuinely concerned about or whose answer you already know.
ASKING TOO OFTEN CREATES NEGATIVE OUTCOMES
Do you know how someone snaps at you because you’ve been nagging them all day?
Exactly.
Your cards will snap at you if you keep asking them the same question. The Whip might show up to tell you, “Enough!”
The way this usually happens is that you ask the first couple of times and the cards look good, but you want more affirmation, so you read again. But then they start going downhill, so you start having doubts whether the first couple of positive readings were truly positive. So you ask again, and the next thing you know, you’re in this vortex of negativity and confusion.
At this point, getting the Whip is actually a good sign!
Stop asking. Leave your deck alone, you’ve upset it.
This is funny, so take it lightly!
At the same time, it’s not healthy to trap yourself in such a vortex. Like I’ve said before, doing readings over and over, or even just a few times, is a sure way to decrease your confidence in your cards and in your reading skills.
Take a step back from your question and forget about it for a while. Or, take out your journal and write away.
If you don’t like journaling, write a bullet list of your priorities, or consider scenarios with a more strategic mindset. Engage your brain, your emotions, or both, so you can leave your cards alone.
Remember that your Lenormand deck is only one source of information, just like your friends are. There are other sources too: Books, experts, and you.
SEEKING GUIDANCE GIVES YOU ACTIONABLE ANSWERS
One important application of asking the right questions is asking questions whose answers inform your actions, whether they’re physical actions like doing something, or mental actions like making a decision.
In this post, I described several questions that can drive empowering behaviors in your thoughts and actions.
When you want to take an action, you will look for that guidance in you cards. That’s why it’s important to be able to interpret the cards for different contexts and purposes. I call these “correspondences”. By correspondence, I mean the meaning a card takes on for a specific context. I’ve detailed ten correspondences plus the advice of the cards in the Master.
The card’s advice correspondence is what a card says if it were giving you advice. Other correspondences are what a card means for love, money, career, etc. Focusing on the advice of a card enables you to take away empowering and actionable items.
The only condition is that you endow your cards with empowering meanings.
This is just like choosing positive and supportive friends! You have the choice of choosing positive and supportive friends, or negative people who make you feel bad about yourself and life.
So ‘program’ your cards to have them speak helpful messages to you even in challenging circumstances. Take the time to assign helpful meaning to your cards. Use this template to get started and jog your creativity from there.
Once these meanings are set in your ‘system’, you’ll interpret them naturally in your readings.
A DETACHED MINDSET HAS PREDICTIVE POWER
We all want to know the future. It’s a human thing!
Predictive power is most probably the reason why we’re attracted to Lenormand in the first place. Lenormand has an added bonus of being super practical - more than the Tarot or any other method.
For many of us, we come across the predictive power of the cards by accident. We might ask a question randomly and the cards nail it. So we’re hooked and we want more! But ‘wanting more’ is precisely the self-defeating mindset that shuts out the power of the cards.
Predicting is probably one of the harder reading skills because it demands a cool and detached mindset while also caring about the outcome.
So this isn’t the same as being half-hearted. It really is a fine line to tread, which is why nailing a prediction doesn't happen frequently. It’s also why it makes sense to get someone else to read for you, even if you know how to read the cards.
Still, practicing this kind of detachment is helpful. In fact, all of divination is a mind game. At the very least, it makes sense to use it to help us grow in intention and mental evenness.
Notice that it’s your mindset that attracts your experiences and the people in your life.
It’s the same with your deck. Your mindset attracts your cards and what you make of them. So if you want helpful readings, pay attention to what your mind is doing.
It takes practice, but that’s the fun!
Heart-centered guidance and intelligent advice are key for an empowering reading
If you want to take your readings to the next level, incorporate practical and spiritual advice into your interpretations. Lenormand Reader’s Card Combinations Master offers detailed heart-centered advice and spiritual guidance as part of every card’s meaning.
